Aston Villa transfer news: Deal officialy complete for Joleon Lescott

Joleon Lescott has finally come full circle and now plays for his boyhood club again. After a summer of speculation (that followed a few years of the same), Lescott has finally completed the move from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa. The centre back likely joins the club as the second- or third-choice player at his position and will likely see match time fairly quickly after the international break.

The fee for Lescott is reportedly somewhere in the £2 million range, which isn't enough for anyone to be worried about. With Nathan Baker apparently set to go out on loan now that this deal is done, even a super-modest £250,000 loan fee would reduce the impact of Lescott's signing by more than 16%. Lescott joins on a two year contract.

And while Lescott is hardly as exciting as was Micah Richards, he comes in as a very capable Premier League centre back. He could slot in immediately in Ciaran Clark's position if Tim Sherwood thinks the young Irishman needs a bit of a break, or he can be valuable backup in case of another year full of defensive injuries. Even if something weird happens and Lescott never plays this wouldn't be a colossally stupid move, as the fee is low enough that Villa can withstand the move being a flop.

So welcome to Aston Villa, Joleon. You've loved us your whole life and now you get to wear the kit. That's pretty cool.